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Sunday, August 9, 2009

If it feels as if you spend all of your money on your kids, you're not imaging things.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy & Promotion recently calculated that the typical middle income family will spend $221,000 to raise a child through age 17. (When adjusted for inflation, that price tag rises to $292,000.)

The report, Expenditures on Children by Families (www.cnpp.usda.gov), defines middle income as families earning from $57,000 to $99,000 a year. A two-parent family earning less than $57,000 will spend about $160,000 over 17 years. High income families (earning $100,000+ a year) can expect to spend about $367,000 per child. Regardless of income, the largest single child-related expense is housing. That's followed by food and child care/ education costs.

Don't forget, these numbers don't include the cost of college!

I have three kids. (Pictured, when the twins arrived.) Yikes!

P.S. This post's title, above, links to the AP story about the report.